In 2006, Zack Snyder’s 300 was a innovative blockbuster that gave America’s frustration over the war in Iraq an acceptable outlook, made Gerard Butler’s codpiece an enduring movie star, and put the Frank Miller/comic book/high contrast esthetic on everyone’s radar. Since then a sequel was considered problematic becuase—spoiler! —everyone died in the end, but even as Miller’s own sequel Xerxes has been pooking along, but a movie is actually happening. It’s called 300: Rise of an Empire and it’s coming out on August 2nd. Not to give away too much of the story, but it involves more loincloth-clad men battling. Noam Murro is the director and a fellow named Sullivan Stapleton stars a Greek general Themistokles. Eva Green plays Artemisia, a female leader of the period, and Rodrigo Santoro returns as the piercing-obsessed Persian leader Xerxes. The film concentrates on the naval battles of the era—probably the battle of Salamis—as Themistokles attempts to defend Greek freedom against the vengeful head of the Persian navy, Artemisia, played by Green. (And yes that really happened, if Herodotus is to be believed.)

Still are beginning to leak out for the movie, and it’s doubtful it can have the same visual impact after 8 years of being parodied, but hey, men in loincloths. Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?

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I wasn’t too thrilled about the first installment so I’ll probably give this one a pass, but I ‘m compelled to post because I know Stapleton from the excellent Animal Kingdom. If you like character driven crime films and haven’t seen it, you should.